With the rapid increase in crime in the last 20 years, prisons, jails, and the like have often become overcrowded, and a tremendous increase in the number of convicted felons and other offenders (hereafter, “Subjects”) on parole or probation has occurred. As a result, correctional officers, facilities, and agencies have faced enormous difficulties in verifying and monitoring the compliance of Subjects with restrictions on their freedom of movement, such as house arrest, work release, and similar parole and probation measures (hereafter, “Restriction Programs”).
One approach at verifying the compliance of Subjects with Restriction Programs has been to attach electrically sensitive collars to ankles. While this system verifies a Subject is located within a pre-determined range of a central monitoring station, it often fails to ensure a Subject is at designated locations which are beyond the range of the monitoring station (for example, work or school).
Another approach used to verify and monitor the compliance of Subjects with Restriction Programs utilizes automated voice verification systems, wherein a computer, telephone operator, or the like periodically calls a Subject and verifies the Subject is where they are supposed to be. While such systems, generally, can accurately verify that the speaker is actually the Subject, commonly, such systems have proven difficult to set-up, operate, use, and manage. Additionally, such systems commonly do not allow a probation officer, parole officer, or such to verify real-time whether a Subject actually responded to a location verification or, as Subjects commonly allege, whether the verification system malfunctioned.
Thus, a system capable of verifying that a Subject is complying with a Restriction Program is needed. Additionally, an efficient, effective, and easy to access and use system is needed which allows an Officer to verify previous responses by a Subject to queries and initiate verifications real-time.